I JUG-FX, feedback on my JavaFX presentation at the ElsassJUG

It’s not very common I’m writing a post that is not about code. But today is an exception to give you a feedback on my first JavaFX presentation I gave at the ElsassJUG, the JUG located in Strasbourg, Alsace, France.

Back on stage

First of all, it feels good to be back on stage. As a former Java teacher, I really enjoy sharing my knowledges and experiences with others, having a discussion about a specific topic (essentially Java). Having others’ point of view, confront them make you grow. Having the opportunity to share them again was really great, especially when it is about a topic you really believe in: JavaFX. I really missed those feelings when you’re preparing your talk: you train a lot, ask yourself what you’re going to say and do, you have to be concise but not too much, “should I code something?”, and so on. So many feelings and questions that cheer you up. And then just before to start, in front of your attendance, you’re just a bit nervous, and now time for show! If you like challenges, it’s a good one. Back when I was a teacher, I remember almost every single moment. That was great. And yesterday at the JUG, it was great too!

Show time

My presentation was about JavaFX 2. If you’re following this blog, you won’t be surprised. Why JavaFX? Because since I discovered JavaFX 2, I’m very excited about it, and really enthusiast. I knew JavaFX 1 and I have to be honest, I was disappointed from it. I know Swing for many years and I think it suits no more the way we do UI today, in 2012. I know JSF (1 & 2) and some aspects are really great. I’ve always been someone who believes in desktop apps, despite of the great progress done in web, and all the great stuff you can do, I still believe in desktop apps. And JavaFX 2 is for me an absolutely great platform for developing desk apps in Java. Up to date in terms of development process (in comparison to Swing), easier, more powerful, UI & UX oriented, it takes nice concepts from the entire Java ecosystem. And I really wanted (still want) to share my enthusiast about it. So I did. My presentation was about an introduction to JavaFX 2, but I decided to give an overview of really important concepts like properties and bindings, as well as FXML, which for me are some really key features of JavaFX. And with which you do crazy things, believe me! And during the talk we switched from the slides to the code some times, in order to create a simple browser without pretensions, just to explore our key features. I think it’s important to explain important concepts but also to give a “real life” example. I could tell you many things about the properties during 30 minutes, but you won’t remember anything. So I kept it simple with a demo. And it’s fun to see Google and LinkedIn in our little browser. At the end we had a Q&A session which was really interesting because I felt some enthusiasm in the attendance about JavaFX and that was great! I really enjoyed the evening.

Community

As a Java developer I feel lucky. Lucky because the Java ecosystem has a great community. When you go to Devoxx, you have such a spirit that when you come back you just want to say “I wanna go back to Devoxx”. You meet people like you and I, people that love coding, love to try new things, enjoy to talk with you about the latest thing they’ve tried. Lucky because I have a JUG. A JUG is a place when you meet people that know what problems you’re facing when you’re trying to connect using a REST webservice, trying to understand why your pom.xml doesn’t work, how you could overcome a JPA problem and so on. A place where you discover so much topics from people with passion. Lucky because I know people all around the world that are as must passionate as I am, working in various companies (even at Oracle), on various projects and to who I can ask “Hey I don’t know how to do this, you have an idea?” and get an answer. That is what community is all about. The community spirit, the Java spirit!

And now?

I have another presentation about JavaFX planned in March 2013 at the MarsJUG (the JUG in Marseille, France) just before Devoxx France. Of course if you would like a JavaFX presentation, feel free to contact me. I think about submitting a paper at Devoxx France 2013, I just need to continue to think about a nice subject (I already have one in mind). After this first talk I am more than ever enthusiast about JavaFX, and spread the word about it. I wish I could *-FX instead of “just” JUG-FX. I’m working on that.

And also I’ll try get involved in the OpenJFX project because it’s a nice place for JavaFX lovers (and I’m definitively one of them!) and to learn a lot of things.

In conclusion, keep coding, keep loving that and do it with passion! (And do some JavaFX, it rocks)
See you around.

PS: I really would like to thank some guys at Oracle for the great support and also the team at the ElsassJUG for letting me present JavaFX. And thanks to the folks who came at my presentation!